ORLEANS – The Orleans police will not bring charges against the manager of a local service station for remarks made to a customer Feb. 15.

Maya McCray Nelson, 36, of Eastham, who is dark-skinned and has dreadlocks, went to the Orleans police following an incident at the One Stop Oil Change in Orleans. She said Earl Heimerdinger, the manager of the business, told her to “get the hell out of here” and then as she was leaving, he added, “And go back to your country.”

He allegedly began berating her before she pulled into the garage, and he continued when she tried to ask him why he was so angry.

Aside from filing a police report, Nelson also wrote about her alleged experience on Facebook and her post about the incident went viral.

In just a few days, hundreds read it on Facebook and One Stop Oil Change’s Yelp.com page. They also heard about it on talk radio and in newspapers.

Monday, however, police decided there was not sufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime, said Orleans Police Chief Scott MacDonald.

Regardless of what the police determined, Nelson had decided not to go forward with charges.

“Earl is a 71-year-old man,” she said. “I don’t expect to change him. With the newspapers and the Facebook posts, I felt it was enough. He didn’t hit me. He didn’t use the n-word.”

Heimerdinger could not be reached for comment.

John Moon, manager of Kingstown Corp., which owns One Stop, said Heimerdinger had tried to apologize when Nelson’s husband came to One Stop to complain.

Moon could not be reached after the police decided not to charge Heimerdinger.

MacDonald said there were conflicting versions from witnesses. “But this is my personal opinion,” the chief added. “An inappropriate comment was made by management.”

It’s not clear Nelson was denied service because of her race, and therefore it doesn’t meet the criteria for a crime, MacDonald said.

Nelson said she felt validated by the police response nonetheless. “I just cannot believe how supportive they were,” Nelson said of the police. “They never made me feel ludicrous or silly for coming to them.”